I am sure you would do a great deal for my sake; and therefore consider at your return here, what a disappointment and concern it would be to me, if I could not safely depute you to do the honors of my house and table; and if I should be ashamed to present you to those who frequent both.  Should you be awkward, inattentive, and distrait, and happen to meet Mr. L-----at my table, the consequences of that meeting must be fatal; you would run your heads against each other, cut each other’s fingers, instead of your meat, or die by the precipitate infusion of scalding soup.

This is really so copious a subject, that there is no end of being either serious or ludicrous upon it.  It is impossible, too, to enumerate or state to you the various cases in good-breeding; they are infinite; there is no situation or relation in the world so remote or so intimate, that does not require a degree of it.  Your own good sense must point it out to you; your own good-nature must incline, and your interest prompt you to practice it; and observation and experience must give you the manner, the air and the graces which complete the whole.

This letter will hardly overtake you, till you are at or near Rome.  I expect a great deal in every way from your six months’ stay there.  My morning hopes are justly placed in Mr. Harte, and the masters he will give you; my evening ones, in the Roman ladies:  pray be attentive to both.  But I must hint to you, that the Roman ladies are not ’les femmes savantes, et ne vous embrasseront point pour Pamour du Grec.  They must have ’ilgarbato, il leggiadro, it disinvolto, il lusinghiero, quel non so che, che piace, che alletta, che incanta’.

I have often asserted, that the profoundest learning and the politest manners were by no means incompatible, though so seldom found united in the same person; and I have engaged myself to exhibit you, as a proof of the truth of this assertion.  Should you, instead of that, happen to disprove me, the concern indeed would be mine, but the loss will be yours.  Lord Bolingbroke is a strong instance on my side of the question; he joins to the deepest erudition, the most elegant politeness and good-breeding that ever any courtier and man of the world was adorned with.  And Pope very justly called him “All-accomplished St. John,” with regard to his knowledge and his manners.  He had, it is true, his faults; which proceeded from unbounded ambition, and impetuous passions; but they have now subsided by age and experience; and I can wish you nothing better than to be, what he is now, without being what he has been formerly.  His address pre-engages, his eloquence persuades, and his knowledge informs all who approach him.  Upon the whole, I do desire, and insist, that from after dinner till you go to bed, you make good-breeding, address, and manners, your serious object and your only care.  Without them, you will be nobody; with them, you may be anything.

Adieu, my dear child!  My compliments to Mr. Harte.